MARTEL: The healing power of God

Compassion for the lost and oppressed, love for the Father and the people He was called to is what motivated Jesus. His ministry to people came from the nagging reality that mankind was quickly losing sight of their inevitable end. Because of the original fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, everyone born would some...

By The Rev. Gerard Martel

The Herald News, Fall River, MA

By The Rev. Gerard Martel

Posted Aug. 31, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 31, 2013 at 3:13 PM

By The Rev. Gerard Martel

Posted Aug. 31, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 31, 2013 at 3:13 PM

» Social News

“When He (Jesus Christ) saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.” — Matthew 9:36 and 37

Compassion for the lost and oppressed, love for the Father and the people He was called to is what motivated Jesus. His ministry to people came from the nagging reality that mankind was quickly losing sight of their inevitable end. Because of the original fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, everyone born would someday face death. And death held for every person an eternity in either Heaven with the Father or in Hell, separated from the Father forever. Looking at the multitudes, this is the thought that consumed Jesus. It was as if He were thinking, “They’ve forgotten all that My Father has done for them. How do I make them see again?” This is compassion, not condemnation.

I have to ask myself, “Am I motivated by compassion for others like Jesus was?” We should all take a moment to reflect and ask ourselves this question. As the Lord’s ambassadors, or representatives, the way we reach out to others should reflect the same love that Jesus Himself showed. Consider how He interacted with the sick, the diseased and the destitute. First, He saw them — He didn’t ignore them or shrink from their deformities and illnesses, but He looked right at them so that they knew His love for them was genuine.

One example of this compassion is found in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 5, Verses 12 and 13, where we see Jesus touching a man with leprosy, a disease that, in that day, meant expulsion from the rest of the community.

“And it came to pass, when He (Jesus) was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who, seeing Jesus, fell on his face and besought him, saying, ‘Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.’ And He put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, ‘I will: be clean.’ And immediately the leprosy departed from him.”

Jesus was much more concerned with ending this man’s suffering and revealing the Father’s love for him than with the disease that filled his body. He looked beyond the problem and saw the need. He touched this man’s diseased life with divine compassion — and He continues to touch lost and diseased lives today.

I’m a preacher of the inspired Word of God — obviously I believe in the need of learning the teachings of the Bible. It is the foundation of our faith. There is another part of our faith, however, that I see being neglected by many Christians when bringing the Gospel to the unsaved; and that is the compassion to touch messy, hurting, broken lives in order to show them God’s love. It is not enough to tell someone that God loves them — they will only know that you believe it if you can love them too. If your God can make you love them in their desperation, then there is hope that He really does love them as well. But, are we willing to touch the unlovely, the sinful or the neglected?

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Next month, on Sept. 15, there is a national appeal from thousands of churches all over the world called Back to Church Sunday. I’m happy to say that we are a part of this appeal. We’ve made invitations and our members are actively seeking out those who have forgotten about God, or who have never had a real relationship with Him, and encouraging them to come back to church to reconnect with their Maker. It’s our way of “touching” the leper, and the blind (as Jesus did in Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 9, Verses 27-29) and the dead (as Jesus did in Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 9, Verses 24 and 25).

The spiritual need of those distanced from God because of their sin makes them leprous, blind and dead in their soul, and this is what we hope to help them see by “touching” them with the Gospel of grace and the love of God. Feel like you’re lost, or dead inside? Come, because God’s touch can heal you too.